Skin
by Eliza4892
Summary: Kate's up to something.


"Kate, open up. I've got to get ready to leave."

The words were repetitive and irritating even to him now, this being the fourth time he'd said it, each time his voice raising and his feet taking him closer to the bathroom door. Jack shook his head when there was no answer, and finished buttoning the cuffs of his dress shirt. Thirty minutes and counting since she'd slipped into the bathroom and lockedthe door. He hadn't even noticed that door could be locked, but trust her to both find it and employ it.

"Kate."

He could hear her sigh through the door. "I know you're out there, Jack, I really do. But every time you bug me I have to stop what I'm doing to talk to you and that's just wasting both our time."

She had a point. Still, he pushed forward. "You're usually not even up this early." Jack was usually up at five thirty, and out the door by seven at the latest. At that hour Kate was still tangled in the sheets, asleep. She worked late afternoons; she didn't get up until nine on a normal day. It was now approaching eight in the morning; she was early, he was late. "So what gives?"

"I have somewhere to be." She replied, giving him the same vague answers she had been giving him all morning since she got up with his alarm. That meant Kate was up to something and that worried him a bit he had to admit.

"Well can't it wait a few minutes so I can get in there? I'm late for work." He asked, already knowing exactly what the answer was going to be. At least he could claim he tried.

"You're already an hour late, five more minutes won't make a difference." Something clattered to the floor and he wondered if rushing her was really such a good idea. "Besides don't you kind of make your own hours? You don't even have any surgeries scheduled today."

"How do you know that?" She wasn't wrong, he didn't have anything major to do until eleven.

"You talk a lot when you do dishes. I'm a good listener." The fact that she was a good listener during that particular time of day might have something to do with the fact that she wasn't doing the dishes and was more or less watching him do it. Kate did not do dishes which worked out fine because he enjoyed it for some odd reason. There was a lot of rustling around before the doorknob finally turned and she opened the door with a smile. "Happy now?"

His heart skipped a beat. She leaned into the doorway, her hip jutting out like some silver screen siren's would've and he found his eyes drawn to the black leather pants that hugged her frame like a second skin. Jack had a thing for leather but he would never openly admit that to anyone. Not that it would've done any good if he had since Sarah would've just looked at him like he was crazy, and Jack didn't normally go for the bad girls. Save, apparently, for the one standing in front of him.

He nearly sputtered, "You're wearing leather pants."

She glanced down at herself, straightening a bit, before looking back up at him, catching her lower lip between her teeth. "I'm wearing leather pants." She repeated back to him, very obviously self conscious under his gaze. He didn't know why; she had no reason to be.

"I didn't even know you owned these." He was stuck on this newfound realization, secretly a little taken by the way she looked. That was until he remembered the current situation. "Where are you going anyway? This isn't exactly your everyday casual look. "Nine out of ten times that involved one of the numerous pairs of jeans she seemed to live in. Not that he minded. She just dressed a lot like she did on the island.

"I'm meeting someone." Another answer that told him absolutely nothing, probably said in hopes that he would just stop right there and let it go. Very rarely did that work, but it should've this time, what with him being late and all, but he was curious. He raised his eyebrows, telling her he wouldn't be letting this one go, and she came closer. Her hands came up to fix the collar of his shirt unnecessarily and he could tell she was nervous. "Promise you won't get mad."

He sighed, that phrase as familiar as his own name. "You know when you say things like that you're really just asking for trouble." His fingers came down to skim her sides and the ribbed material of her turtleneck before hitting the waistband of the leather garment that had captured his attention.

"Promise me."

"Fine. Promise."

Done with his collar, her hands fell to rest on his shoulders. He could tell from both her body language and her apprehension that he wasn't going to like this answer. "Sawyer's in town this week. I told him I'd meet up with him at some point."

And just like that he dropped his hands to rest at his sides and removed himself from her grasp. If Jack had an off switch that was definitely it. Things having to do with Sawyer did not set well with Jack anymore. He didn't leave the room though, which was both a display of willpower and a step up from the last time they'd had this conversation.

"You promised Jack." She hastily reminded him, before he could start in on her.

"I'm not mad," he protested, pacing a bit. She put her hands on her hips, giving him a look that clearly told him how bad a liar she thought he was. It wasn't really his talent, though she didn't have a problem with it. "Alright, what do you expect me to say?"

"I expect you to be a little more trusting of me." There was a hint of anger in her voice, a sign that she was tired of him reacting this way. He got defensive, occasionally he shut down. He wasn't sure why she expected this time to be different.

"I'm sorry Kate but we went down this road on the island and next thing I knew you were shacking up with him and I couldn't get a decent explanation out of either of you. I don't really want to go there again." The pacing continued and he never once looked her in the eye.

"Yeah, and that lasted for what? All of two weeks. Give me a break. It's been four years." He could see her contemplating ways to have worded that differently in order to avoid the look he'd just fixed her with. "Come on Jack, stop this. You're overreacting." She grasped his arms, an effort to get him to cease his movement, and he didn't even bother trying to fight her.

"He's in love with you."

She pressed her body into his, another tactic of hers that had better odds of working than the others. It ensured that he wasn't thinking as clearly as he would've liked. "I'm in love with you."

He looked up at the ceiling, pausing to think for a moment, and then nodding, letting his arms come back around her as he kissed her forehead. She didn't squirm under his tight grasp like she might've a few years ago. She'd accepted that at some point he'd become a possessive man. "I'm sorry, it's just –"

"—bad past experiences?" He smiled as she finished his sentence for him. "Yeah, I think I can relate to that." It was her way of bringing them back down from the tense moments before and he appreciated it. He held onto her there for a short while, calming, reminding himself that she was his girl, not Sawyer's. She wasn't property, but he needed to tell himself that he had some sort of claim on her. Then Kate broke the silence, voice barely higher than a whisper, "You've got to go to work."

"I do." He replied slowly, leaning down to capture her lips in a gentle but meaningful kiss. When he pulled back he rested their foreheads together a moment before releasing her. He made it a few feet before he turned back around to face her. "Can I ask you a question?" 

Kate wrinkled her brow. "What?"

"The leather," he restrained himself from letting his eyes run over her body again. "Why have I never seen them before? And why does Sawyer get to see them?"

She was back to chewing her lip again. "I thought you'd think they were slutty or something." Kate shrugged, looking away, cheeks flushed. "Sawyer appreciates the imagery and I might as well get some wear out of them."

"You don't look slutty." He reassured with a smile and she relaxed a little bit. "In fact I think you should wear them more often."

A mischievous grin appeared on her face suddenly, as she looked back up at him. "Try to get home early tonight. Maybe we could go out for dinner since I'm all dressed up and then we can see whether these pants look better on or off."

He raised an eyebrow, almost asking if she was serious. She nodded slowly. In his head he began reorganizing his schedule. "Sounds like a plan." With that he closed the bathroom door behind him, looking at himself in the mirror and marveling at how much better this day had just gotten.


End file.
